By: Nick Lipton
The kids are in town and they are bringing Salt Lake City to it’s knees. The young guns of skateboarding’s elite packed into the EnergySolutions arena for the Gatorade Free Flow Skate Park Finals first round.  After hundreds of skaters competed in seven incredibly talent packed heats Jack Olson qualified 1st for the final, Final round. 

Out of the crowd of young talent 12 skate rats qualified for the end all be all of Gatorade Free Flow Skate Park Finals. It would be unfair to not address some of the others though because these kids are freaking good. In Heat 2 D’Andre Pendergrass brought a blunt shuv in his bag of tricks which got a good cheer. Heat 2 also had the skater with the best name, Little Star, and the kid had a mean kickflip 5050 to back up such a great name. The next heavy hammer was straight out of the circus. Taylor Bray ended Heat 4 with a Backflip. The crowd reaction probably blew out some eardrums. In other heavily original tricks Dalton Dern put his Vert skills to use and spun and grabbed his way all over the course. There were plenty of other bangers, but the quality of skating out of those who made it to the next round was unreal. 

Qualifying in 12th Alex Longcamp skated well, but number 11 Caedyn Curto and number 10 Alex Majerus both brought some seriously unique style to the contest. The next qualifier, number 9 Chase Webb really separated himself as a talented kid. Chase was throwing blunts, bigspin front boards, and some sort of varial flip to boardslide. Simply put, it was nuts. Anythony Estrada qualified 8th and seemed like he had plenty of energy headed into the second round of the Finals. Hometown hero Tyson Bowerbank not only got a standing ovation when his name was called but also qualified 7th. This kid is young, and on the smaller side, but his skating is unreal. How he threw flip in rail tricks and a frontlip 270 out is beyond me. 

The next three qualifiers were number six Aaron Collier, the fifth place qualifier Ryan Thompson, and the forth placed Brendon Villaneuva. The top three qualifiers were all impressive young men. The injured CJ Dixon must have had a chip on his shoulder because he skated hard, fast, and well for his full heat. The kid was on fire and his bigspin over the set was nuts considering his injury. Second place qualifier Ray Macken made it rain as well. The kid has skills and should put on a grown man quality show in the second round of the Final. 

The youngster that qualified first looks like the kid in the movie Problem Child, which is ironic because he will be nothing but trouble for his competition for years to come. Jack Olson unloaded something evil on the Park course. Skating with the confidence of a seasoned pro Jack put down bigspin frontboards, blunts, a perfect 180 nosegrind, a huge front 180, a 360, and a gnarly nollie bigspin backlip. As the second round of the finals approaches Jack Olson is looking pretty good as the leader of the pack. 

Jack Olson
Ray Macken
CJ Dixon
Brendon Villaneuva
Ryan Thompson
Aaron Collier
Tyson Bowerbank
Anthony Estrada
Chase Webb
Alex Majerus
Caedyn Curto 
Alex Longcamp